Goatboy’s 40K: Back to the Battlefield!
Welcome to Goatboy’s 40k Chatter Box. Today we go over the newest tough guy on the competitive scene – the Daemonic Incursion Detachment.
We initially thought some of the Core choices were a bit too tax heavy to be useful but some RTT’s and buddies play testing has shown that even with having to take chosen numbers this detachment is pretty nutty. The good thing for those worried about the fluff that the overall design still feels very “daemonic” in nature. Also with its initial design restraints it does mean the army will most likely be just a straight Chaos Daemon build as there is very little wiggle room to get all the toys from other books added in there.
First let’s look at why this detachment is powerful. The biggest thing is the initial rules debate on how the Daemonic corruption works. After reading it a bunch, talking with buddies, and working it out it does seem powerful but it is not the end of no objective secured armies. Here is the rule and then my quick break down of it.
Daemonic Corruption
Objective Markers controlled by units from this Detachment count as controlled for the rest of the game, even if the controlling player has no units within 3″ of them. This effect lasts until an enemy scoring unit cleanses the objective by controlling it.
The initial cry of broken was from the idea that a Daemon army would take the objective, control it, and the only way you could take it back is by having an objective secured unit come and control the objective. This isn’t correct as you need to read the rule book to figure out how to control an objective. Here is the break down of how you control an objective from the rule book – it becomes pretty clear that the doomsday thought of never getting control of a corrupted objective is false.
Main Rulebook – 40k
Controlling an Objective – You control an Objective Marker if there is at least one model from one of your scoring units, and no models from your enemy scoring units, within 3″ of it.
This just means that any scoring unit that gets within 3″ of the objective and none of your daemons are within 3″ of that objective – they cleanse it and can score it. Of course – if you place a Daemon unit within 3″ of it and it is already corrupted – the opponent can’t take it from you as your and contesting the control of the objective and thus it is still in the Daemons hands as it is corrupted. This is pretty powerful, but not nearly as broken as originally thought. It does feel very fluffy as while yes the game is based on controlling objectives it doesn’t make much sense for a Daemon that lives forever to care about a cache of ammunition, rescuing a buddy, or just trying to keep control of that damned poker chip on the table top.
The next two sets of command benefits are pretty easy and really push this detachment into the must have territory when playing a non FMC daemon style build. The ability to control the Warp Storm with a +1 or -1 to the roll is pretty huge. Mix this with Fateweaver (who became bonkers with the updated Tzeentch psychic table) and you have a fully weaponized chart. I can see a lot more games coming down to the return of the lucky roll of 9-12. The final bit of awesome comes in the ability to reroll Instability rolls. This is great too as you can try to get some bad Warp Storm rolls when fighting a daemon on daemon match up and they didn’t take the Detachment. Oh hey I am going to force a ton of Instability checks for you! Or get that -1 to the Inv save you need to help take down those pesky units.
With that in mind lets start to look at the different types of armies you can create. The Detachment does have its limits in that the Core choices can be a bit unwieldy. I want to talk about each Core choice from the minimum to the maximum. Some have more uses then just activating the Detachment while others feel a bit harder to get to work right. After that will go into the Auxillary and some of the Command choices that actually work. I wish the Tetrad was easier to fit with a Core choice but I suspect that was a “balancing” reason to get it working right. Still I will talk about trying to get it to work as well – as I think that formation has a lot more power to it. That will come out of another article as I get to testing it more.
MurderHorde
First Initial Core Choice is the MurderHorde. Its made of of a Herald of Khorne or Skulltaker plus 8 units of Bloodletters, Flesh Hounds or Blood Crushers. Now you know and I know the best choice from this is the Flesh Hounds as they are the cheapest unit with the most wounds for its initial “cost”. They might not have all the weapons some of the others have but they make up for it in their extra rules and abilities. This is unit I personal see getting taking with this Core and one of the reasons why I bought more 50mm bases to test out this army.
So let’s do some Math to start to see the Core costs.
- 8 units of 5 Flesh Hounds comes out to 640 pts.
- Herald of Khorne, Juggernaut, Locus of Wrath, 30 pts of gifts (exalted for Grim if you got Fate or just stuff) – 155pts
This starts out at 795 points – gives you 83 wounds on the table that cover a good amount of space. The Ability to Scout with this big pile of guys is huge too as you can cause a lot of issues for someone trying to deepstrike and get involved with your army. This still leaves you 1055 points to work with for most events which is more then enough to activate an Auxillary and a few Command choices. Will talk a bit about the Auxiliary in a second as there as you don’t have to take the cheapest one to be decent for the army (5 Furies of Fury Power).
You could do some Blood Crushers if you want to have the old Crusher Star Army from back in the day but their cost is too high for 1 less wound and on a body that gives up 3 wounds when shot by a big weapon. The Bloodletters are cute but as they are more expensive then a normal Daemon Troop unit it becomes a lot harder to justify using. I think this initial load out is the best “cheapest” core option on the Khorne side of things and one of the initial starting blocks for a decent Daemonic Incursion army. You could do a lot more Dogs with bigger units – but MSU seems to be King to getting the most of out of the Incursion Detachment.
Auxiliary choices wise – you can take the cheapest one with 5 Furies. They can deepstrike, cost 35 points, and give you a simple way to activate this detachment. After that you could go to the useful Khorne Herald Karanark. He can be especially useful if you have a bigger unit of dogs to Hide your Herald in. His Locus counts for that unit as well as the Heralds so you get a nice little murder unit. The Gorethunder Battery seems pretty bulky to get a whole lot of use out of. Sure it is neat it is one big unit of Ugly chariots but it is too costly to get to work right. The Forgehost seems fun, especially if you wanted to run a ton of Slaanesh Grinders who can get really close to the enemy. I think in the Khorne army this formation is just not worth it as the Core is taking up too much space. This just leaves you the Fury option or Karanark. I am more inclined to use the Dog Herald as I think its just cooler – but if you are running out of space some deep striking Furies can always be useful to corrupt an objective.
The final piece is the command choice and this is where you can either go into Utility HQ’s (Fateweaver, Bel’akor) or continue with the skull crushing theme (2+ Blood Thirsters with stuff). Both seem interesting and while I personally will be testing some mixture of Fate plus LoC’s I do see power in utilizing the ultimate trio of Thirsters. They won’t have a ton of gifts, but just having some D slingers running around wouldn’t be a terrible thing.
Tallyband
Next up is the Tallyband. This is one of the cheaper “core” options that still packs a ton of models on the table. As per the other ones it is made up of a Herald or Herald Character + 7 units of Plaguebearers or Nurglings. I suspect we will see a crap ton of Nurglings if this core choice gets used a lot as it is the cheapest option. This Core Choice also fits well with the Tetrad as it is cheap enough to allow all those Daemon Princes to get fully powered up. You don’t gain some of the other Greater Daemons but having the ability to control the Warpstorm table with the Tetrad will be a powerful option.
Let’s do some Math
- Herald of Nurgle
- 7 Units of Nurglings
Total – 360 pts. I went with a cheap Herald as while adding in the Locus might be interesting – having it on T3 guys is just not worth it. Too many Scatbikes playing their Jazz all over the table tops.
Nurgle themed Auxiliary options are not the most cost efficient. The Rotswarm is neat as it gives you the access to a bad ass Fly squad but having to take 7 total units plus the Herald makes it a lot harder to get it working. I think its extra rules are powerful as adding a Locus will just make this group a heck of a lot tougher. You have to take single units of Beasts to make this a cheap option so while I think it is neat I suspect will just see a cheap unit of Furies taken most of the time. Again if you are doing a massed Grinder Army this core isn’t a terrible choice to give you a bunch of protected objective scorers.
Minimum Rot Swarm
- Herald of Nurgle
- Beast of Nurgle X 1 – X 7
Total – 409 pts of meh. If you start to add in a full Fly Squad and a beefed up Herald it gets really unwieldy and hard to justify.
Command wise this is one of the initial Core formations that can fit the fully beefed up Tetrad. I don’t know if that will make it good – but being able to take that formation within the confines of the Daemonic Incursion detachment is a pretty spicy combination. I think this idea is why there isn’t the whole – reroll your daemonic warlord trait. I think if this was available it might make the Tetrad a tad nutty as there are at least 3 on the Tzeentch table that just creates a rather powerful formation.
Flayertroupe
Next up we have the Chaos God that GW doesn’t seem to know what to do with. The lack of Special Characters and overall direction makes this a hard god to utilize. Thankfully its Core formations are easy to use as they have a lower model count as well as fairly cheap options. It isn’t as cheap as the Nurgle Core as they don’t have a sub 50 point Troop choice but they make up for it as being the best “grinder” for an all out metal assault army.
The Slaanesh Core choice is called the Flayertroupe and it is made up of a Herald or Masque plus 6 units made up of Fiends and Daemonettes. I kinda wish it was Daemonettes and Seekers but then that would be GW giving me exactly what I wanted and we know that won’t happen. Still this core is fairly cheap as you 6 units of 10 Daemonettes isn’t breaking the bank. Let’s look at the minimum set up.
Herald of Slaanesh
- 6 Units of 10 Daemonettes
Total – 585pts – This isn’t bad as you can take some Slaanesh marked Furies as another “murder” ball option. They are pretty dang good with Str 4, rending, and an ok amount of attacks. You add in the herald from the Core choice with either the reroll Locus and you have a pretty rough unit that hurts when they get the charge. Of course bolters are their worst enemy but that’s the life when you live on a the luck of a 5+ invulnerable save. The Loci passing ability could be awesome with Beguilement – but those Daemonettes do not survive very long to get involved with the enemy. There is a thought to use Fiends and just have a massed army of rending, rerolling fools of doom. It makes me wish they would finally release a plastic Fiend kit. Plus the extra rules of this one just seem ripe to abuse with taking all units locked in to Initiative 1 and WS 1. It makes me think Fiends are just a better option as they have more wounds to soak things up a bit and starting at T 4 is a big bonus to survive the rain of Bullets marines throw at you.
Auxilary wise I still see the Furies being used the most. The Slaanesh marked Furies are pretty good and with some extra support they can become pretty gnarly as a back up assault force. I like the Grand Cavalcade as it gets you the Seekers you could use to help swarm the enemy. I don’t know how good it really is as you rely on the Warpstorm table a lot so I suspect if you go into this direction the leader of the Daemonic tide – Fateweaver – will end up showing up. Heck Fateweaver is just way to dang good right now with all his spells to not show up in armies that need the Warp to be nice to them. I also like the idea of massed Slaanesh Grinders running forward, crushing face, and hopefully doing some damage.
Warpflame Host
The Final core choice is the Warpflame Host. Its made up of One Herald of Tzeetnch or the Changling plus 9 units of Horrors, Exalted Flamers, or Flamers. This is probably the biggest core choice but it also has the most options. It even has one of the cheaper “choices” in the Exalted Flamer – but again the unit is pretty hard to get to be effective. Still there is a ton of power involved in this unit with its ability to Pass out the Heralds Locus out to every unit within 12″ (+1 strength to Psychic powers is spicy) as well as the formations ability to add another +1 to their strength as well. Still it is a pretty expensive core choice and with the added expense of their auxiliary choice as well it becomes a harder core unit to use.
- Herald of Tzeentch, Locus of Conjuration, Lvl 3
- Exalted Flamer X 3
- Flamers X 3 – 3 Units
- Pink Horrors X 11 – X 3
This sits at 774pts due to the annoying nature of point costs for the flamers plus the 11 man Horror squads. Auxiliary wise I suspect the Burning Host will find more use as a combo with the Murder Horde as it will generate a crap ton of MSU units to fulfill the winning mission parameters. The Burning host is made of a Herald plus 9 units of Screamers or Burning Chariots. Whoever has 9 burning Chariots is a crazy person. From there Fateweaver should be leading your team and utilizing the ability to control the Warp Storm will lead you to some games where you just have to say – sorry I guess I just know how to roll all the 6’s.
The Ruinous Lists
Lets look at some basic list ideas from full on fluffy builds to true combo centric options designed to utilize this formation.
It’s Raining Murder!
Core: MurderHorde
Herald, Juggernaut, Locus of Wrath, Greater Gift, Lesser Gift, Crimson Crown
Flesh Hounds X 5 – 8 Units
Auxiliary – Daemonic Flock – 5 Furies – aka the Tax!
Daemon Lord – Bloodthirster of the D, Greater Gift X 2, Lesser Gift
Daemon Lord – Bloodthirster of the D, Greater Gift X 2, Lesser Gift
Daemon Lord – Basic B Bloodthirster, The D Sword from Curse of the Wulfen, Greater Gift X 2, Lesser Gift
This is as pure of a Khorne Daemon list as I could think. I almost went with a ton of Grinders but all those Thirsters just feels very Khorne like to me. Plus it releases the Dogs of hell upon the damned. And you can feel fluffy throwing down all these models.
Grindergeddon!!!
Core: Tallyband
Herald of Nurgle
Nurglings X 3 – X 7
Forge host – Soul Grinder, Baleful Torrent, Mark of Slaanesh – X 3
Forge host – Soul Grinder, Baleful Torrent, Mark of Slaanesh – X 3
Forge host – Soul Grinder, Mark of Slaanesh
This is the cheapest way I can get the actual Daemonic Incursion to work with as many Grinders as I can fit in. This won’t win but it will sure be hilarious to see on the table top as you run around, cause problems, and maybe – just maybe get some sweet crushing assaults off.
Touching you in your Swimsuit Area
Core: Flayertroupe
Herald of Slaanesh, Steed of Slaanesh, Locus of Beguilement
Daemonettes X 20 – X 2
Fiends X 3 – X 4
Axu: Forge Houst – Soul Grinder, Baleful Torrent, Mark of Slaanesh X 3
Axu: Daemonic Flock – Furies X 20, Mark of Slaanesh
Daemonic Lord: Fateweaver
I played a similar list without all the fiends a few LVO’s ago. I enjoyed running around with Grinders, causing issues, and just winning with things that people were not expecting. The Furies of Slaanesh hit a heck of a lot harder then you suspect especially as they start at strength 4 with rending and rerolling to hit with the Herald and the Locus. I have taken down a Knight with them before so its no joke when they run around the table top and cause issues.
MSU 4 Life!
Core: Murderhorde
Herald, Juggernaut, Lesser Gift
Flesh Hounds X 5 – X 8 units
Auxiliary – Burning Sky Host
Herald of Tzeentch, Lvl 3, Disc
Screamers of Tzeentch X 3 – 9 Units
Daemon Lord: Fateweaver
This covers the table in nonsense – utilizing the power of Corruption to be everywhere, hit lots of things, and be a pain in the butt. The last LVO boogeyman – Warp Spiders – shake in their boots when they see so many screamers that will move near them, fly over them, and hit them with what is hopefully not their daemonic genitalia.
Wrapping it Up
Overall I think this detachment is extremely powerful. I suspect as more people pull out their daemons they will find out that the newest Battlehost/Decurion is one that is going to threaten the top tables for a long time. It does make me want to bring out my GK army a lot more as murdering lots of dogs and other things with holy flame is what it does. Maybe will see a GK host that will rival the strength of this new daemonic one.
Bow Before the Primordial Annihilator
